What are
the Nag Hammadi writings, and do they reveal anything we don't already know
about Christ or the Bible?

Discovered in 1945 near the village of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, they are
fourth-century papyrus manuscripts that formed part of a gnostic library. The
writings are a valuable source of information about gnostic beliefs and
practices. From them we can see more clearly the arguments and the theology the
gnostics used in their attacks on the Catholic Church.

Although some writings are fragmentary, enough are still intact that a fairly
clear picture of gnosticism emerges in the pseudo-gospels and epistles. Included
in the Nag Hammadi collection are such spurious works as the <Apocryphon of
John>, the <Gospel of Phillip>, the <Apocalypse of Paul>, and the
<Gospel of Mary>.

Scholars were delighted to discover several works whose existence was known
in the early centuries of the Church but which were presumed lost. Perhaps the
best treatment in English of these writings is <The Nag Hammadi Library>
(San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988).

Many Catholic theologians of the first several centuries devoted themselves
to refuting the gnostic arguments, in particular, Irenaeus of Lyons (140-202),
who wrote a devastating critique of gnosticism in his masterful five-volume
work, <Detection and Overthrow of the Gnosis Falsely So-Called>, more
commonly known as <Against Heresies>.